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Nine top health and fitness apps to help you stick to your New Year's goals

Personal trainer in your pocket

By Aimee Heckel Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
01/15/2013 01:00:00 AM MST

Monica Hewell, of Erie, often asks herself how she let her weight get out of control. Part, no doubt, was her upbringing in a household with tons of fatty foods and zero portion control, she says. Now, as a working mom with a husband who works evenings, she says she felt like she rarely had time for herself.

"What I recently realized was that I was using that for an excuse to be lazy," she writes on her blog, monicasjourney12.blogspot.com, where she is tracking her weight-loss experience.

Last February, she began exercising with a personal trainer and she lost 20 pounds. But over the year, with moving, vacations and the chaos of daily life, she began slipping into her old habits.

She's hoping accountability via the blog and the app, MyFitnessPal, can help.

MyFitnessPal is a free calorie counter that Hewell installed on her phone. The premise of the app: Medical studies show that keeping a food journal doubles your weight loss.

"We believe -- and medical studies prove -- that the best way to lose weight and keep it off forever is to simply keep track of the foods you eat," the app's website explains. "Gimmicky machines and fad diets don't work, so we designed a free website and mobile apps that make calorie counting and food tracking easy."

Nicole Irlbeck agrees. The Boulder personal trainer says two of the most important factors in helping people form new habits are accountability and awareness, which a journal can create.

"Having someone you tap into, whether a coach, an app or a friend, it helps," she says.

Many fitness apps are also connected with social media outlets. Studies show when a person declares publicly that they're going to do something, they are more likely to do it, Irlbeck says.

She says one of the best things about apps is they're easily at your fingertips -- so no longer can people use the excuses "I don't have time" or "I don't know how."

"There are apps for all of that, and more," she says. "You can get almost anything on an app these days. If there's a part of fitness not accessible in your area or you don't want to go to a gym and do it, get an app for it."

In addition, modern apps are easy to use, making them accessible to everyone from teenagers to grandmothers, she says.

Of course, an app will not do the work for you. You still have to get on your feet and move, and eliminating the face-to-face human interactions makes it easier to lie or drop off, Irlbeck says.

In addition, there are so many thousands of apps to choose from that it's easy to get overwhelmed or jump between different programs instead of sticking to one.

Also, make sure the programs you use are safe and created by trained fitness experts, or you could end up getting hurt. Remember, your app can't watch to make sure you're not going to blow out your knee with this series of squats.

Experts recommend using apps to supplement real life training with a professional -- and of course checking with your doctor before starting any new plan.

Check out the government's app store for a list of U.S. Surgeon General approved apps designed by health experts: apps.usa.gov.

Here are a few of our favorite health and fitness apps to help you start off your 2013 resolutions on the right sneaker:

Sport and Fitness Excellence, $2.99, scored the highest in a Brigham Young University rating of apps for their ability to actually spark change, using scientific theories. This app centers on hypnosis to motivate you and help you achieve goals.

Cyclemeter GPS Cycling Computer, $4.99, is a GPS-enabled app that records your time, distance, location, elevation and speed and plots the information into stats, maps, graphs and a calendar. Hear motivational announcements about how you are fairing as you race yourself (in your previous workouts). You can use Cyclemeter to design a training plan and share online with friends. You can buy sensor accessories to track your heart rate, bike cadence and bike speed, too.

Cyclemeter can also be used for running and walking.

MyFitnessPal, free, or other food journal apps, like Lose It! (free), allow you to set weight-loss goals backed by personalized calorie goals. Simply logging what you consume helps you become more aware of it. Some food journal apps also break down the food by nutrients, which can help you eat more fiber, less sugar, less fat and be aware of how many grams of carbs you're swallowing.

Irlbeck recommends also writing down your mood in the "notes" section of MyFitnessPal.

"One of the things that can be most frustrating is when people have an off week or don't see results, they throw the baby out with the bath water and quit altogether," Irlbeck says. "If you can look back and see how far you've come, a lot of people will get back on track. You can look back for motivation."

Things,$9.99, a task manager (that's fancy for to-do list) that allows you to organize the things you need to do by category and priority. Schedule things for reminders. This is a great app for people who think they don't have time to exercise.

Lift, free. Set a goal -- big or small -- and this app reminds you to do it and tracks how many successful days you have. Try to beat your last best streak. Quit smoking. Floss your teeth. Take your vitamins. In addition, it shows you how many other people are working on the same goals. More than 19,000 people also need an app to remind them to floss their teeth daily, so you're not alone.

This app even has a New Year's resolutions category. Eat vegetables: More than 1,000 participants. Go to the gym: More than 13,000. Run: More than 15,000.

"It's good for mini resolutions," Irlbeck says. "That's what all resolutions and goals come down to. It all comes down to the little, bitty steps we take to get there."

FooducateDiet Tracker and Healthy Food Nutrition Scanner, free. Use this app when grocery shopping. Scan the bar code of the food you want to buy and it will grade its nutrition from A to F, based on the ingredients. Best of all, it offers healthier alternatives. You might be surprised the subtle differences between two different brands of applesauce with nearly identical ingredients, for example.

Fooducate received first place in the U.S. Surgeon General Healthy App Challenge and has been featured on Oprah.

Fitocracy, free. This social networking app is designed to make exercise fun. Track workouts, earn points (to promote you to different levels), "slay the laziness dragon," follow other members -- or compete with them -- for motivation. Fitocracy was named an App of the Year in Men's Journal.

Nike Training Club, free. This women-specific app gives you access to more than 114 different workouts created by professional athletes and top trainers (like Rihanna's personal trainer).

For a similar concept but even more pre-made workouts (to the tune of 1,700), check out Fitness Buddy, 99 cents. This app (named by Gizmodo as one of the "best iPhone apps ever") also features more than 1,000 HD videos and more than 4,000 photos and animations.

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